Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Vatican Financial Information Authority (AIF): "Directors, presidents, accountants have been dismissed, but those who have to control everything, the AIF always remains untouched and unsupervised, as if it did not exist?"

(Rome) The Vaticanist Marco Tosatti has now turned his eyes away from the Correctio filialis. The reason is a letter whose author he did not name by name, but a "high animal." This "high animal" deals less with theology, but more so with politics. Through the Correctio filialis a different topic had disappeared from the headlines: the interview by Libero Milone. Milone was appointed AuditorGeneral by Pope Francis in 2015 for the Holy See and all its institutions. On the 19th of June, Milone was suddenly shown the door. One reason for this was the fact that the Vatican press office and curial Archbishop Angelo Becciu, a Substitute for the State Secretariat, was explained in the interview: Milone had "spied upon some representatives of the Holy See."

This "high beast" explained this situation in a letter to Marco Tosatti, which has distracted our attention from the Correctio filialis and the petitions connected with it "for only five minutes ."

"My impression, which I have gained, is the customary (as in Vatikleaks 1 and Vatileaks 2): that this argument [the Correctio filialis] was used to divert attention from the so - called "Case Milone" and the Vatican finances about which I only know from what I read in the newspapers, including Milone's interview in Corriere della Sera.

After five years, we see that 'unrest' is growing exponentially because of Vatican finances. I do not know much, but if I could give advice to the Pope and, above all, to the Secretary of State, I would ask it to undertake an investigation into the investigations which the Vatican Taxes' Control Authority is managing and overseeing. Is it possible for directors, presidents, auditors to be dismissed, but those who would have to control everything, the AIF [Vatican Financial Information Authority], always remain untouched and unaffected, as if they did not exist? But do the leaders of the AIF really command? On behalf of whom?

Pope Francis, Cardinal Parolin, we beseech you for the good of the Church: Seek! Seek!"

The AIF

The Vatican Financial Information Authority (AIF), mentioned in the letter to Tosatti, was begun by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 under the constant pressure of international bodies for "more transparency". As head of the authority, he appointed a cardinal. Nevertheless, Moneyval, a Council of Europe expert committee for the assessment of measures against money laundering and terrorist financing, criticized the measure as inadequate.

A few months after his election, Pope Francis made far-reaching changes. The first operation took place on 8 August 2013. In November of that year, he entered a new law into power for the AIF with a motu proprio . At the same time the Global Players came under the advisory firms in the Vatican with his pontificate. Katholisches.info wrote on January 28, 2014:

" McKinsey , Promontory, Ernst & Young , KPMG: With the new pontificate, the Vatican also began a race to engage the most elaborate and costly consultancy companies in the world in terms of organization and finance. The world as a "global village" makes them indispensable and, above all, they themselves are indispensable. A system of efficiency and striving for profit, which reinvents itself independently and constantly increases in power. No finance minister comes out without them because they have long since lost perspective. For this reason the consultancy companies already write the laws themselves, which are blessed by the political process. This is also the case in the Federal Republic of Germany. In whose interest are a dozen international consulting firms working?"

The Swiss René Brülhart became the new director of the AIF in November 2012 to implement the demands of the Moneyval report, as the Vatican Press Office said. Since 2014 he is its president. According to Francis, Brülhart is bound only by the Pope, and has to report to him. This also applied to Auditor General Milone, but from September 2016 onwards, Francis did not receive him. Milone, who wanted to speak with Francis about his dismissal, did not gain access to him.

Marc Odendall

At the turn of the year 2016/2017, Marc Odendall had been named in connection with the conflict in the Order of Malta, between Grand Chancellor Albrecht von Boeselager and Grandmaster Fra Festing. Pope Francis placed himself on the side of Boeselager and dismissed the Grand Master. Francis drew upon on the report of a commission appointed by him. The commission had attributed to the Grand Chancellor, who had been dismissed at the time, faultless behavior. Odendall was one of the five Commissioners. According to a judgment of the Hamburg Regional Court, Boeselager knew about the distribution of contraceptives by Maltese International and also approved this. Thus, as far as the conflict in the Maltese Order is concerned, the behavior of the Grand Chancellor was not so faultless.

Grandmaster Festing had previously accused the commission of "bias" because at least three of the five members were in business dealings with Boeselager. The Pope did not care. Nor was he concerned that the Hamburg Court indirectly questioned the credibility of the Commission's report. Fra Festing's accusation was confirmed, however, Pope Francis applied the exculpatory report.

Boeselager and Odendall are linked to the Caritas Pro Vitae Gradu Charitable Trust (CPVG), registered in New Zealand, which is valued at 120 million Swiss francs and is administered by a Swiss trustee.

The protective hand of the State Secretariat

The Secretary of State, in other words, Substitute for General Affairs Becciu, followed the dismissal of Auditor General Milone. The State Secretariat holds the protective hand over the AIF. The Secretariat of State elected the five Commissioners, who gave Pope Francis the dubious document, with Grand Master Festing, and Boeselager was again appointed as Chancellor. Becciu was appointed by Pope Francis as his personal representative in the Order of Malta, and the official representative of the pope, Cardinal Patron Raymond Burke, was marginalized.

The "high animal" that Tosatti mentions, however, did not mean Substitute Becciu with the questions: "But do the heads of the AIF really command? On behalf of whom?"

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Here's our attempt at Spanish with the help of some google translate of a letter Marco Tosatti of Infovaticana received from a very learned and well-connected correspondent in who is known by the tantalizing nom de guerre, Romana Vulneratus Curia.

Marco Tosatti:

Today, Romana Vulneratus Curia (RVC for short) has exploded. So much so that he has written an ironic message, a bit bitter, but serious, one that is markedly different compared to the usual. Then, with indifference, as if nothing happened, he has let slip between lines an indiscretion in his comment in the title, and in the article which we put in bold. And forgive me that there is little! Anything that comes to me deserves some consideration by the humble person who writes these letters, who does not have the Vatican frequency or ecclesiastical connections of RVC. Here it is:

Letter to Tosatti

"Dear Tosatti, at first I wanted to write to you of what is more of a marvel for us, the Italians, that we prefer that nothing is lost. We have everything we can wish for: Mrs. Boldrini, Count Gentilini, the teacher Bonino and above all the great Pope Bergoglio, who loves and protects all of us Catholics and Italians above all. But do we need anything else to be calm and serene?
Then I read the article by Father Spadaro in Civiltà Cattolica and finally I understood what is the origin of all the evils in the Church, in politics and in society: conservative and traditionalist Catholics. And I wondered if Spadaro would not be quite right to distrust these old, reactionary, sectarian, and Manicheans, who still insist on the claim that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, resurrected and redemptive of the world. But have these Pharisees read or understood the great prophet Karl Rahner? Then, still in the morning, I read the insinuations - intimidations - made to Pope Ratzinger on the story of Regensburg and I was surprised. But are traditionalists the danger of Catholic faith and civilization? What if it were the others? Do you want to see, I asked myself, that this friend who was explaining me could have been right, unlike the general opinion. You see, the great Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini in the 2005 conclave (when Ratzinger was elected) would have dissuaded his colleagues from electing such a Jesuit cardinal explaining that if he were elected pope, the prestige of the Society of Jesus would be compromised for another hundred years, and in a more painful way than with Pope Clement XIV, who in 1773 dissolved the Society of Jesus?
But not satisfied with unverifiable indiscretion, I tried to understand when, why and how the Company was reconstituted by Pius VII in 1814. I admit that the story is not clear about this, but it follows that after 5 years of prison, that when Pío VII returned to Rome on 24 of May of 1814, one of the first things that did, two months later, the 7 of August, was the reconstruction of the Company of Jesus. Immediately after, he obtained the restitution of all the territories subtracted to the Church. I repeat, history does not explain it, but after the liberation of the Pope, the restitution of the territories and the reconstruction of the Company took two months. What would Napoleon himself have suggested? Well ... maybe Tosatti himself could explain it.
Your RVC . "

(Rome) Cardinal Raymond Burke, a brilliant jurist and the highest judge of the Holy See until the end of 2014, is a patient man with a great deal of suffering. But he can not just stand by for everything. Anyone who currently wants to understand what is happening in the Vatican and in the Church must listen carefully, look behind the scenes, read between the lines and, above all, question what the "information disinformation channels" are rumoring in the Vatican, says Marco Tosatti. In other words, anyone who wants to see through this, is called to be an observer. This is exhausting but necessary in the service of the Church.

In November 2014 Pope Francis dismissed him, away from the Vatican, to become Cardinal Patronus of the Order of Malta, to which he only said of this humiliation, where the Pope says to go, I go. When Pope Francis sent him to Guam, he said he did not see it as exile.

Cardinal Burke does not want to be the scapegoat

However, he does not want to be a scapegoat for the dirty laundry of others in the Order of Malta. In the Order, which is at the same time a sovereign state in international law, a severe power struggle had spread in December / January. With Vatican support, the first rank of the professed knights was in fact deprived of power by some members of the second class. Burke, the jurist, had to stand idly by to the legally unclean activity. The best laws are only as much in effect as people are found to ensure their compliance. In the Vatican, the Constitution was overthrown. Interpretation?

Journalists approaching the "magical circle" around Pope Francis, as Tosatti commented, gave the astonished public a certain reading of the events in the Order that had little to do with reality. Cardinal Burke did not speak, did not correct this. He was the Pope's ambassador to the Order. Ambassadors do not have to express their opinion, but to speak publicly only in the interest of their client.

The power struggle in the Order of Malta

Finally the letter became known to Burke on 1 December 2016 by Pope Francis. A letter containing clear instructions for action against certain power centers in the Order. As the Ambassador of the Pope, Burke also held on to the wasps' nest. He could not know this. The Cardinal Secretary suddenly interfered, stood up against him, and declared that with the Pope's letter everything had been quite different and misunderstood.

The Knight of the Second Estate, Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager, as Major Chancellor in the Order, had been deposed by the Grand Master of the Order and reinstated by the Vatican, with Papal authority. The centuries-old hierarchical structures in the Order had been overridden by a papal fiat. Scarcely again in office, and now as the real ruler in the Order, Boeselager entered the press at the beginning of February, declaring that he no longer had any use for Cardinal Burke in the Order. A few days later, the Vatican sent the Cardinal to the South Seas, far from Rome.

"I regard this as libel"

Boeselager's attack was too brazen for the Cardinal. He came to the public to clarify that he had never called for the resignation of Boeselager. The accusation was piquantly repeated by Ludwig Hoffmann of Rumerstein, an Austrian knight, ie, a member of the old guard. Hoffmann von Rumerstein, according to the Order's Constitution, heads the Order until the election of a new Grand Master, but he has only to say as much about Vatican interference as the Vatican will allow. The unilateral representation of a certain Fronde has found numerous adepts, followers, and naive followers.

After Cardinal Burke's speech, Cardinal Burke then became clear: the assertion that he and not Grand Master Fra Matthew Festing had demanded Boeselager's head, "I regard as defamation." Grandmaster Festing, the subordinate in the internal power struggle, returned on January 24 after a conversation with Pope Francis, disappointed and unnerved. Hoffmann von Rumerstein may have thought of using the viewpoint of the Order's new representation in this critical situation. After all, the professed knights, like him, have to reckon with the fact that Pope Francis completely deprives them of power. The papal announcements to "reform" the Order were felt as a threat by parts of the Order.

"Anyone who allows distribution of contraception should also take responsibility for it"

After a reconstruction of the facts, the resignation request to Boeselager was not planned at all. Grandmaster Festing, with the written request of the Pope of December 1, wanted to create clarity. To this end, he invited Boeselager on 6 December and confronted him with allegations which had come to light independently by means of two investigation reports. It was only when the Grand Chancellor showed himself inscrutable that the confrontation escalated. The Grand Master demanded Boeselager's resignation. When this refused, Festing dismissed him. The rest is known .

Cardinal Burke on the clash of 6 December:

"I had no authority to demand the resignation of the Grand Chancellor. I have merely pointed out that a person consciously admitting the distribution of contraception in the works of the Order should also assume responsibility for it. The Grand Master then asked the Grand Chancellor to resign, which he refused. Then the Grand Master proceeded to his dismissal without me being involved in any way. "

Now the Pope had sent him to Guam to conduct proceedings against an emeritus archbishop. He sees this as a task, not as an exile from Rome.

"The Pope has never personally spoken to me about this mission."

Two operations and the proven information disinformation channels

The actual nomination was made by the Congregation for the Congo. Marco Tosatti wrote:

"In fact, in this rather mournful story two different, interrelated operations can be distinguished. The first operation concerns internal power struggles in the Maltese Order, which are probably also about money. It is unfortunate that the figure of the Pope was so obviously involved in this operation: he was the one who forced the Grand Master to retreat. We do not know what means he used to do."

Another aspect, according to Tosatti,

"...is the intervention of the Vatican Secretariat of State: It is known that the family of the Grand Chancellor who has been deposed and been rejoined after the Anschluss of the Order, by the Vatican has excellent relations with the Terza Loggia [Third floor, Secretary of State]; But they have substituted him for the task of spiritual renewal of the order ... "

The Swiss journalist Giuseppe Rusconi spoke of the Anschluss, referring to the "Anschluss" of Austria to the German Reich in 1938, in order to say that at the end of January, the Vatican was doing the same with the Maltese Order. The "Terza Loggia" means the third floor in the Apostolic Palace and is synonymous to say that the Boeselager family has "excellent relations" with the Pope.

Tosatti continues:

"The second operation, on the other hand, appears to be an opportunistic action. There is an opportunity to attack, discredit Burke, who is a nuisance in other areas, and, at the same time, to confuse the real maneuvers by smoke candles. It is enough to make the rumors that [Burke] is guilty of all the guilt, friendships, informational channels ... Always this Burke! How much patience can the Pope muster with him! ... "

If you want to understand what is happening in the Vatican and in the Church, you must take the trouble to read between the lines, to look behind the scenes, and to look closely at who says what and what he says, especially when it is supposedly neutral, "in the newspaper stands".

Friday, August 7, 2015

(Hong Kong) "In the middle of Tibet, in areas away from the main roads, which are often accessible only by foot, Tibetan Catholics have preserved their faith, even though they no longer have a priest for more than 50 years." The Vatican expert Marco Tosatti is concerned in an article with the destiny of a forgotten Catholic community on the "roof of the world." Tibet, from a European perspective, is a land of mystery and unfulfilled longings, known mainly because of the Himalayas with the highest mountain peaks in the world and the seemingly mysterious Lamaist Buddhism. But Tibet also has a Christian history that is as old as the Buddhist.

Buddhism arrived in the 6th century to Tibet for the first time and started there in the centuries that followed spread. Christianity arrived at the same time, so 1,500 years ago for the first time in the barren highlands, as the historian of religion Philip Jenkins confirms. It was the Church of the East of the Nestorian Christians who brought the gospel even then to China. In 780 Timothy, the Catholicos of the Church of the East, wrote as "the Holy Spirit has anointed a metropolitan for the Turks in those days, and we are preparing the ordination of another for the Tibetans."

Catholic Villages in the Himalayas - Secret Catholics in Japan

The plant of the Christian mission was pulled over the past fifteen hundred years in China and in Tibet again and again by political upheaval. The situation today of Tibetan Catholics in their survival in the isolation recalls that of the Japanese Catholics who survived almost 300 years from the 16th to 19th centuries in the underground, and without a priest, completely hidden.

The existence of hidden Tibetan Catholics became famous recently by the French travel writer Constantin de Slizewicz who has lived in the PRC for several years. In Les peuples oubliés du Tibet (The Forgotten People of Tibet), he reports on the middle location in the Himalayan village Baihanluo. It can be reached by mule tracks only on foot or in the saddle of a pack animal. In Baihanluo is a church in the middle of Tibet. It is made ​​of wood and dates from the late 19th century. It was built by Catholic missionaries of Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris (MEP). The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris was one of the 17th century missionary orders, to whom the evangelization of Tibet had been entrusted. The French Indochina missionaries followed the course of the valleys up out into the highlands of Tibet and founded "Persian Missions", as Mission offices in particularly dangerous and wild areas were described.

In 1949 the Communist Party came to rule China, which was soon followed by the invasion of Tibet. As already several times in China and Tibet's history all foreign missionaries were expelled or murdered by the new rulers. The local Christians had to submit and usually renounce their faith, if they wanted to stay alive. The Communists did not act differently.

The secret hope that one day the priests will come back

The Catholic Church of Bainhanluo

"The churches were closed or converted into storehouses or schools. The Christians had no right to carry religious articles. They were threatened with the arrest," writes de Slizewicz. Those who had a leadership role among Christians, was persecuted and interned in concentration camps called laogai, where they had to perform forced labor.

Some areas that are particularly isolated and were far away from the political centers, escaped the wave of persecution. Some remote villages even preserved their own churches. Catholics no longer have their priests. In this regard, the Communists had done a great job with their hunt. For half a century the Catholics persevered without priests. They gather in their churches for prayer, as taught to them by the French missionaries and long for the times when they had a priest.

Despite the severe persecution, the Catholic faith has survived in the rural population in the underground. And in spite of the radical break that the communist regime imposed upon Catholics 50 years ago, by taking all their priests from them, "the Tibetans felt drawn closer to God" as de Slizewicz reported. "They have dedicated their lives to the faith. These Tibetans converted to Catholicism do not do it as half-baked. In nearly 50 years without a priest and sacraments, they have not forgotten a word of what they were taught by the missionaries in the last century." And they hope that one day a priest will come back to them.

They maintain the graves of the missionaries - In the nativity scene are a yak and mule

A Catholic Church in Tibetan Yunnan

In the most remote villages they cultivate with devotion the tombs of the first French missionaries, they have never ceased to pray, celebrate Easter and Christmas, the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Instead ox and ass they put a Yak and a female mule in the nativity scene. Thus they have not forgotten the Latin and pray the Our Father in the Church language of Rome.

In Baihanluo which is situated in the midst of the highest mountains in the world on a ledge, among the 400-500 people in the Catholic village community of de Slizewicz there still lives a vivid memory of Brother Zacharias, a catechist and lay missionary from the people of the Lahu, who live in the mountains of Yunnan and speak a Sino-Tibetan language. Zacharias was in his mid-40s when the Communists took power. Before the persecution he fled to Nationalist China, then Formosa, now Taiwan. When he retired, he wanted to return and resume his job as a catechist at their homeland. He slipped in to the hidden Catholics of Tibet, among whom he taught and died ten years ago at the age of one hundred years. "Zacharias was in all the churches pouring holy water from Lourdes in the water," said the residents. Lourdes and the Marian apparitions were well known among them. "If someone fell ill, he was given a drop of it, and three days later he was well again."

In addition to the hidden villages of Catholics there are is also a vibrant underground Church in Tibet

Tibetan Catholics at Communion

In the outlying churches the damp books left behind by French missionaries are still carried. Among them are prayer books in the Tibetan language, which were printed in the late 19th century in Hong Kong. The mountain Catholics are supsicious of the outside world. Even with the underground Church loyal to Rome in the more developed areas of Tibet they have no contact.

As Deng Xiaoping, Mao's successor granted opening in the state and party leadership, previously destroyed churches were rebuilt in some places, as in Zhongding, a more accessible valley of Tibet. There Annet Génestier buried, a French missionary of the Puy de Dome, is buried, who died in 1937 in Zhongding. Catholics maintain his fife as a souvenir of his arduous missionary journeys through Tibet. Today there is the 39-year-old Chinese priest Francis Han Sheng. Because of state paternalism, all Catholics in the regime are forced to obey the Patriotic Association, there are besides the hidden Catholic villages in Tibet, also a lively underground Church true to Rome. Since of the Chinese occupation of Tibet, Catholic association close to the regime is irrelevant in the highlands.

Francis Hang Sheng says that there are more than 10,000 Catholics in Tibet. There is a lack especially of priests and resources. He supervises 16 churches in the area, celebrates Holy Mass, offers the sacraments and strengthens the faithful.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

(Rome) In these days there is talk in the Roman Curia much about possible reform, which "could have a really radical effect", says the Vatican expert Marco Tosatti in the daily newspaper La Stampa.

The reform envisages the idea to limit the period of service of Officials of the Roman Curia to five years. An extension of a maximum ten years could be granted in exceptional cases.

Officials are called priests, whether in congregations or councils, do the bulk of the work in the Roman Curia in the various dicasteries. In the secular sphere you would speak of the officials in the administration.

A priest from Munich, Paris, La Paz or New York, who will be appointed to the Roman Curia to Rome, would in future return to his home diocese after five years. The regulation should apply to all institutions of the Holy See, excluding the Diplomatic Service. The diplomats will continue to follow the traditional career model.

Weakening of the Curia - the diplomats win?

Service in the Diplomatic Academy, the oldest in the world, begins with the cursus honorum of candidates, the way, which at the end, will be Apostolic Nuncio and titular archbishop after about 16 or 17 years of service.

The idea, according to the critics, would weaken the central institutions for the management of the universal Church. The church would be robbed of the expertise, skills and experience of officials. No secular authority would engage in such self-enfeebling. Politicians come and go, but the civil service is quietly the backbone of any state administration.

The idea is justified by the intention of limiting "careerism"; with limiting pastoral duties of priests who should not be held too long by administrative work; with the ability to integrate more priests from various dioceses in the management of the universal Church. This does not convince outside of Santa Marta. Outside there is the idea, should it be really final, that this is regarded as a further blow by Pope Francis against the Roman Curia.

Some speak of an "old" anti-Roman reflex, which comes into fruition with this idea. A reflex, which under Pope Francis leaves only the diplomatic corps, which is already the big winner of the change in Popes from 2013, as the big winner. Should the reform idea to be implemented, the diplomat would automatically form the actual backbone of the world Church in Rome within a short time.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

(Rome / Berlin) The Catholic Church in Germany has experienced a record number of almost 218,000 leaving the church last year. 39,000 more than the year before.

More even than in 2010, when the German Church was shaken by the sexual abuse scandal of minors and was under massive public pressure.

The figures highlight a sideshow: Between 2005 and 2013 Pope Benedict XVI was annually blamed, if there wasn't a merely local "culprit", who could share the blame, like Bishop Krenn in Austria or the bishops Mixa and Tebartz-van Elst in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Church Exit Numbers Were Instrumentalized Against Benedict XVI. - Since silence

"Controversial actions of Pope Benedict XVI. were to blame" the "like exclusion of homosexuals ", "lack of equality for women" or the "lifting of the excommunication for Lefebvrian bishops" which was said, for example in 2010 by the Austrian pastoral theologian Paul Zulehner (Vienna) and Episcopal Vicar Willi Vieböck (Linz). But there has never been when all things are considered, more leaving the Church than under Pope Francis. Since then there is an awkward silence until the among the wordy Church representatives and the media. Their "interpretations" are subsequently exposed as a church-political instrumentalisation.

In the Federal Republic of Germany, Church membership is directly coupled to tax aspect. The recognized denominations demand and are payed the so-called "church tax", which is calculated and charged by the state and sent to the churches.

Church-tax Secures Influence

The money supply is enormous. In 2011 alone, took the Catholic Church in Germany took in about 5.8 billion euros.

With 1.3 million employees, the Catholic Church is the second largest employer in Germany next to the public sector. The largest private company, Siemens, employs just over 400,000 employees.

With the bulging coffers, the German Church exerts considerable influence in the Third World.

Majority of the German Bishops Want to Change the Doctrine of the Church

Some commentators, such as the American George Weigel, writing of the growing erosion process, in addition to financial reasons, describes the tendency of most of the German bishops to trying to change the doctrine of the Church.

This includes marriage and sexual morality, especially the doctrine of the right to access the sacrament of marriage and the Eucharist. Concretely it applies to the recognition of second marriages and the admission of remarried divorcees to communion. It is exactly these issues that the Synod of Bishops will address this October.

What Curial Archbishop Geogr Gänswein Says

"It is interesting to hear what Curia Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Prefect of the Papal Household and private secretary of Pope Benedict XVI. has to say in a far more extensive interview," said Marco Tosatti. Interview by Jaume Figa i Vaello for the Catalan and Spanish website +1 Sumant Hostories of the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya .

Question: Some of these issues come from your native Germany. Why?

Archbishop Gänswein: Yes. It is true that not all the errors come from there, but the point in question is provided as follows: 20 years ago John Paul II rejected, after a long and laborious negotiation, that divorced and remarried would have access to communion.. We can not simply go and change things established in our Magisterium.

Question: Why do some shepherds want that which is not possible?

Archbishop Gänswein: I do not know. Maybe they give in to the Zeitgeist, perhaps they can be led by the applause of the people, which is made by the media ... to be critical of the mass media, is certainly less enjoyable. A shepherd must not decide on the basis of whether the media applauds or not. The benchmark is the Gospel, the Faith, sound doctrine, Tradition.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

(Rome) The Apostolic Commissioner, the Capuchin Father Fidenzio Volpi OFM Cap from the Congregation of Religious, with the approval of Pope Francis, instead of the Order leadership, with sole decision-making power at the head of the Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate set (FI), has given the real reason for the drastic intervention in the life of the Order for the first time.

The progressive Vaticanist Mario Tosatti had published a few days ago in the daily newspaper La Stampa a letter from a member of the Third Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, in which the radical approach of the Commissioner has been criticized (see separate report "Unrestricted War" against the Franciscans of the Immaculate Conception? The Unspeakable "Blemish" ). The interventions affect not only the male religious branch, but also the Third Order, which was completely paralyzed by Father Volpi.

Friday, December 6, 2013

(Rome) No other order has suffered such dramatic consequences on the change of pontificate in late winter 2013 as the Franciscans of the Immaculate. In July, the Order was placed under provisional administration by order of the Congregation for Religious with papal approval. Although the Order actually exactly corresponds to what Pope Francis wishes, namely evangelical poverty, missionary zeal and new evangelization, of which the Franciscans of the Immaculate are one of the only orders, against which the new pope has proceed with drastic measures.

So dramatically that even a progressive Vatican expert like Marco Tosatti has now asked what should have these poor friars have only arranged, yes, done wrong, to deserve such a harsh punishment? He could not fine an answer because he could not find a "crime", with which to burden them. He therefore published a letter that describes the radicality with which the Order is being rebuilt. The question remains: Why did you destroy a thriving Order?

Young, Poor, Missionary and Evangelizing, but with a "Blemish" ...

The answer is in fact to look at a whole different level and observe the punished innocently. It immediately arives at the level of intrigue. As a cold as well as brutal coup by a minority in the Order. This was possible but only because this minority has been heard by the Congregation for Religious and in his turn heard by the Pope. The Order had a major "flaw." The "flaw" was that under the leadership and guidance of Pope Benedict XVI. they rediscovered the traditional rite and implemented it internally within the Order. The pastoral care of the Order was bi-ritual, internally it was old ritual. All in perfect accordance with the applicable rules and the canon law.

The Order is one of the few orders that have numerous vocations and can be described as a flourishing religious family in both the male and the female branches. The cons discovery of the liturgical riches of the Church makes the Franciscans of the Immaculate more to a unique phenomenon in the Catholic Church. Franciscan, missionary, flourishing and altrituell. Was unique to the Franciscans of the Immaculate, that a New Order was changing to the Old Rite. It was a combination that didn't only win the Order friends in the Vatican. With the rediscovery of the ancient liturgy, the Order began to intensively study the Second Vatican Council and of its examination and interpretation took place, working in the light of the ever valid tradition.

The Order Followed Benedict XVI. and discovered the Old Rite

A "flaw", which was all the more serious, because the Order had numerous vocations. A "blemish", that certain church circles of little friendliness and probably envious, did not dare to criticize under Pope Benedict XVI.. All the more uninhibited and with incredible haste they struck after his resignation. And Pope Francis gave them leave. For none of the other orders were effected in the change of pontificate more dramatically than for the Franciscans of the Immaculate.

Let us hear so what Marco Tosatti wrote in the newspaper La Stampa on Wednesday:"We received a letter from a layman who is close to the Franciscans of the Immaculate, a small Order, which is under an acting manager (a highly debatable matter), and he complained of a special hardness posed by the new management. Based on many years of experience, we know of the cruelty in dealing with fellow brothers in church circles toward those other circles inferior to nothing. But just as Pope Francis, who signed the provisional administration, demanded in his interview with the chief editor of the Civilta Cattolica an attitude of Compassion 'and softness'. He was as one of those in the Church, who entered the field hospital after a battle and said, I see clearly that what the Church needs today is the ability to heal wounds,' because, 'Nevertheless, there are people weary of authoritarianism '.

Each reader should decide for themselves whether in fact the authoritarianism plays a role in the Franciscans of the Immaculate and arrogance among the Sisters. What have these poor men done? Have they speculated in money, sexually abused minors or maintained an immoral lifestyle? So here's the letter. "

Letter from a layman who is close to the Franciscans of the Immaculate

Little is known about how things went on after the Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate was placed under provisional administration. Therefore, a brief summary is necessary.

After Father Stefano Maria Manelli, the worthy and pious founder of the Franciscans of the Immaculate (FI) was placed under charges that he had led the brothers away from their founding charism, without explaining this to date, of which the father is said to have concretely carried anyone away; then, the priests' celebration of the old rite was prohibited, a ban that applies to this day, and has been followed in the Order with absolute and faithful obedience; after which the brothers, who are faithful to the charism of the founding fathers, were hastily charged in summary proceedings and removed, and all those brothers who support the "new" line were promoted in the various monasteries around the world, then without a visible reason, the General Procurator Father Apollonio, Director of the Theological Seminary and Guardian of the Cloister Roma-Boccea was dismissed and sent to Portugal, as the Order's Superior of Florence was dismissed and sent to Austria; then Father Settimio Manelli and Father Siano, were dismissed as Rector and Vice Rector of the Order Seminary and sent to Africa; then they were replaced by two brothers of the "new" line, one of which does not even have a degree; then Father Budani, who was in the middle of completing his studies of the canon law to end overnight and without possibility of completing his studies was sent to Africa; then, after Founder Father Stefano Manelli was deposed as Superior General and exiled and even though he has met all instructions and guaranteed absolute obedience, even his closest relatives are forbidden to visit him, and it is forbidden to make phone or receive phone calls and any contact with the outside world is denied to him ... after all, now it's the Apostolic Commissioner, the Capuchin Father, Fidenzio Volpi, with the assistance of Father Alfonso Bruno, who is the new powerful man in the Order, and it's all-out war against the laity who are in continuing connection to the Order.

By a letter dated 27 November, he forbade any activity of the lay members of the Mission Immaculate Mediatrix (MIM) and the Third Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate (Tofi). He refused that the Tertiaries to wear their robes.

Is it resolving alleged internal difficulties claimed f a thriving religious community with such incredible hardness and such Stalinist purges? Or its charisma be destroyed instead, which was not only able to arouse increasing number of vocations and to attract and expand the Order on all continents, but was, until yesterday, praised and promoted by the highest ecclesiastical authorities. Just think that the now outlawed Father Manelli and Father Lanzetta, were once welcome until a few months ago by cardinals and bishops and were welcome in the columns of the Osservatore Romano Publications were even open to them.

Monday, October 21, 2013

(Vatican) Who advises the Pope? The question is the most talked about whenever the Pope is mentioned since last March. It has been busy because the pontificate raises many questions. The advisers of the Pope could contribute to the unraveling. The progressive Vaticanist Marco Tosatti has published his travel log on Vatican Insider his reading.

Impulsive Pope: Did Francis Interrupt Prefect Müller During Mass, Because He Immediately Wanted to Talk to Him?

The Vaticanist Tosatti was the one recently in the newspaper La Stampa who told of an ​​episode he received that apparently left even this die-hard progressive shivering, "always assuming that it is true," he added. The subjunctive is imperative because the message went through several corners and has found no confirmation from another source. Tosatti attended a Sunday Mass at the German National Church dell'Anima Santa Maria in Rome in the second half of September. He then learned that Pope Francis is supposed to have called at the Congregation at the end of June to speak on the spot to the Prefect Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller. But he was then celebrating a Mass for German seminarians in a nearby chapel. The Pope had insisted that the Archbishop interrupt the celebration and talk to him. An official of the Congregation was rushed to the chapel and informed Müller about the dictates of the Pope. He had interrupted the celebration and went into the sacristy to take a phone call with the Pope. The major concerns of the Pope? He told me of an investigation against a Cardinal underway at the CDF against an old friend of the Pope. The Pope ordered the Prefect of the Congregation of Doctrine and the Faith, Müller, to immediately discontinue the investigation and close the case immediately.

Should the incident have happened, then it would indeed be shocking. Tosatti released it despite his reservations.

Whoever Finds the Ear of Pope Francis?

According to Tosatti it is "certainly" Monsignor Fabian Fedacchio Leaniz who is among the "consultants" of the Pope. The prelate has been working at the Congregation for Bishops, but works unofficially, "without assignment" but "effectively" for the post of secretary of the Pope.

Regarded as friend and adviser from the first hour in the Conclave, the Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes is Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Clergy. Hummes quickly let it be known that he had been involved, according to his own intervention, and instrumental in the election of Pope Bergoglio. Accordingly, he went to the side of the new Pope at the central loggia on the facade of St. Peter's, as he was shown to the world for the first time.

Less obvious is the role of the former Primate of England, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor. The Cardinal was allowed, as he was born in 1932, to participate in the conclave. His reservations about Benedict XVI. were known. With Pope Francis, the Briton is understood to be, however, excellent. The new Pope, says Tosatti "often" gets council from him. The same also does the Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain. Because he knows the good rapport of the Cardinal with the Pope, the Cardinal was an important contact person.

Then there's the Honduran Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga. The Salesian was appointed by Pope Francis to the C8 Cardinals Council and represents Central America. He could also be called to Rome and take over the management of a Congregation. Since 2007, the Cardinal has good German skills already as President of Caritas Internationalis. Maradiaga was, after his appointment to the newly created eight-member Cardinalsrat, the most enthusiastic and talkative, to perform a "fundamental reform" of the Roman Curia. A sign that the Honduran is among the eight cardinals (excluding the Chilean Cardinal Ossa) is closest to the thinking of the new pope. His word is to have great weight with Pope Francis, says Tosatti. This has to do not only with aspects of content, but also with the common language and common Latin American origin.

Therefore, Archbishop Emeritus of Santiago, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa also fits in this category. The Cardinal from the neighboring country of Argentina was an elector in the March conclave. On the 5th of September he completed his 80th Year and retired from the circle of papal electors. But not from the circle of papal consultants.

A conspicuous number of non-friends of Benedict XVI.

The "Privy Council" of the Pope, as Tosatti has called the circle of men who have direct access to the Pope and whose word counts for him is also the Italian Giuseppe Cardinal Bertello, the President of the Governorate of Vatican City. Cardinal Bertello until 2007 was nuncio to Italy and San Marino. Actually, he had then hoped to be Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, but Benedict XVI. preferred the French-Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet. Also, when you post "Red Pope", the head of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples did not come to Bertello in train, but Cardinal Fernando Filoni. For Bertello remained under Benedict XVI. next to the dignity of Cardinal "only" in a ranking administrative task. Now he belongs to the group of advisers of Pope Francis.

This circle is "udite, udite" [Hush, hush] as Tosatti notes, also there is the Curial Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who was sent packing with a loud noise as Apostolic Nuncio to the United States to Washington DC.. Viganò was not then a noted "friend" of Benedict XVI.. Another outspoken opponent of Pope Benedict has an ear: the former papal master of ceremonies, Curial Archbishop Piero Marini, whom Pope Benedict XVI. dismissed in 2007 from his function. Despite elevation to archbishop and one post of his choice, Piero Marini opted for the post of President of the International Eucharistic Congresses. Marini has never forgiven him the dismissal as master of ceremonies. And he also made ​​no secret, as when Francis was elected as Pope, Piero Marini rejoiced to be finally rid of Benedict XVI..

Do the Heads of the Liturgy Consultants Have the Handwriting of Piero Marini?

The liturgical sensibility and the desire of Benedict XVI. to reclaim the sacredness of worship, gave Piero Marini no pleasure. Something he has in common with Pope Francis. The liturgy was previously not an issue for the new Pope. At least not in his speeches. The situation is different in the decisions in the field of Liturgy, as recently, another Vatican expert, Sandro Magister pointed out. Piero Marini's handwriting wants many changes with the complete replacement of all consultants for the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Papal See. The liturgical renewal staff of Benedict XVI. was beheaded without exception.

To Pope Francis' circle of advisors, according to Tosatti, belong the Spaniard Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru. The Opus Dei Bishop, a professor at the Opus Dei University of the Holy Cross in Rome and Canon Lawyer, was appointed by the new Pope to the be the coordinator of the commission of inquiry into the Vatican bank IOR.Enterprising Francesca Chaoqui in the circle of Papal Consultants? - Multiple Meetings with Pope

Astonishment is likely about who has already been allowed to sit "several times" at the table of the Pope in the Domus Santa Marta, one of whom "recently" means the enterprising Francesca Immacolata Chaoqui (see report Francesca Chaouqui: always on the go, lobbyist, Nuzzi-admirer, new Papal Commissioner ). Each time she was in the company of other people who wanted to be presented to the Pope. A privilege, which Pope Francis clearly guards, since at the Vatican his employees do not have access to the Pope, as only recently the weekly magazine Focus reported. A "distant" attitude toward his subordinates is summarized in one of the recent sensational interviews in an unflattering manner with "leprosy".

The appointment of lobbyist Francesca Chaouqui as the member of the new Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs of the Holy made for astonished head shaking (Chaouqui to see their own reports below). Sandro Magister wrote in vain against the appointment Chaouquis equally pointing to the problem, as against the equally controversial appointment of Monsignor Battista Ricca, director of Santa Marta, the special representative of the Pope in the Vatican Bank.

Those who believed that Pope Francis could withdraw a decision made, learned their lesson. This includes the fact that the new Pope, despite public doubts about the suitability of Chaouquis for her office with far-reaching emergency powers, met with the Italo-Moroccan "many times sociably", says Tosatti.

And Then the Phone: "Some Journalists"

Finally, the Vatican expert mentions the phone that the Pope uses with "extreme impartiality". The "secret", who the Pope likes for advice, is greater here. "However, it seems that some journalists are among them, old friends of the former Cardinal," said Tosatti. The Vaticanist does not call him, but one of the "old friends” should, the Argentine writer Jorge Milias (see report Jorge Milias 'regrets' that private telephone conversations with Francis Pope have been published ).

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This is a polemical Catholic Royalist blog. It will also attempt to provide a window onto various events, situations and personalities not generally or favorably presented to the purview of the general public in the English speaking world. It also hopes to be a bridge for those who wish to cross over, unite and fight for the truth.